Writings about music from a Dublin-based composer.

Tag Archives: punk

A weekend spent at home recently gave me the opportunity to watch a lot of music television, and me being that kind of guy that I am, naturally took the opportunity to catch up on what the young folk are listening to in rock and metal nowadays. There are a couple of channels catering to this audience, but my package doesn’t have access to Kerrang! (probably a blessing) or MTV Rocks (definitely a blessing), so the only dedicated channel left is Scuzz, which in my experience averages a 50% success rate in avoiding utter drivel. However, for the dedicated fans, the channel Propeller (Sky 189) plays music shows in the evening, after a long day of teleshopping and talk shows. Tuune is general chart music, followed later in the evening by Rock Tuune, and then late at night comes Metal Tuune. Anyway, onto the content:

The opening to Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra is possibly one of the most famous orchestral works ever composed – its iconic use in 2001: A Space Odyssey complements the tone poem’s philosophical origin, and its emotive power doubtless comes from its masterful harnessing of the overtone series – the simplest possible musical relation, presented in an awesomely moving orchestration: